Former Afghan Election Commissioners Transferred to Prison

After the appeal court of the Anti-Corruption Criminal Justice Center in a verdict sentenced 10 former members of the two electoral bodies to a five-year jail term each, they were transferred to prison.

After the appeal court of the Anti-Corruption Criminal Justice Center in a verdict sentenced 10 former members of the two electoral bodies to a five-year jail term each, they were transferred to prison. The electoral commissions are accused of electoral fraud in the parliamentary elections held last October.

Seven former members of Independent Election Commission (IEC), including head of IEC Abdul Bade Sayyad, Wasima Badghisi, Maazullah Dawlati, Rafiullah Bedar, Abdul Qadir Quraishi, Hafizullah Hashimi and Maliha Hassan as well as the former head of the Electoral Complaints Commission Abdul Aziz Aryaee and two former members of the commission, Humaira Haqmal and Abdul Basir Fayiz were sentenced to five years in prison each.

However, Ahmad Shah Zamanzai, former head of the secretariat and Sayed Ibrahim Sadat, former head of IEC’s information technology were found innocent regarding the file.

Meanwhile, all the 10 commissioners, who were sentenced to imprisonment, did not accept the claims and defended themselves during the court session.
This comes as Ashraf Ghani had previously dismissed the former elections commissioners and the attorney general office barred them from leaving the country.

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